MY PROJECT 3 (ANALYSIS STUDY 1)

Today, Indian Railways has progressed so much in every field; whether it is related to its safety or technology. Indian Railways also tries to keep its system upgraded from time to time. New technologies are implemented in every stream lowering the cost and increasing the efficiency of travel. 

Still something more left for major development and that thing is 'CABOOSE'.Now, most of the people thinks what is a Caboose. So, just like passenger trains has guard section at the end of the train from where the guard performs it's duty, similarly you have seen the guard cabin at the end of the freight train in white or brown colour where guard stays and performs it duty for freight train called as 'CABOOSE’. But have you ever seen the condition of a Caboose? When I have seen it for first time, I almost got frightened and probably you would also get frightened by looking its inside condition. The condition was really pathetic and impossible for guard to do its duty in that environment. Still every goods guard performs its duty honestly and always ready to safeguard his/her allotted train.

We have seen a lot of upgradation in passengers’ coaches. In starting, there were ICF coaches with non-AC cabin at the end of train for guards. With further developments, the coaches were more modified to make journey for guard easy and safe. On further changes, ICF coaches were replaced by LHB coaches having end-on-generator cars at both end of train which has air-conditioned cabins for guards for a safe and comfortable journey.

A lot of developments progressed in passenger's coaches but nothing has been done for freight Caboose. This blog has come up with the idea of small development for 'CABOOSE' to have comfortable and happy journey for guards.

One of the major problems for 'CABOOSE' is lack of electricity supply. The Caboose always remain dark with improper air circulation. We know that no arrangements can be made to electrify Caboose by locomotives or any end-on-generation techniques.

But one thing can be implemented is the self-generating techniques of coaches. As in ICF coaches, Dynamos are used underneath the coaches for producing 25kW of power supply to coaches. As the Caboose are only in small area, so less electricity consumption for lighting. We can use LED'S for efficient energy conservation. They only need power of 5kW which can be easily be generated by Dynamos and stored in batteries. Also, they provide less friction by dynamo to Caboose as compared to ICF coaches.

Another thing that to be implemented is the proper toilet facility for guards. In running condition of train, it becomes very difficult for guard to go toilets, thus attached toilets with Caboose should be there. There are lot of area available in Caboose where toilets can be attached as shown in the figure. Proper collection system attached beneath the Caboose similar to bio toilets which can be drained out at the stations.

As the Caboose is made of pure iron steel, there becomes an improper insulation for the inner side. The guard faces extreme heat during summer and extreme cold during winters. Thus, a small layer of insulation at the walls of the Caboose should be provided to keep inner condition favourable for journey. It doesn't cost much, as insulation is required in small area only and a thin layer can help a lot to make condition favourable.

 

In this way, certain development can make a big difference for that person who do its duty honestly and make things comfortable for them rather than leaving them in such bad conditions. There are development in every sectors like coaches, locomotives to make journey for dutyman comfortable. Why not make some more changes for goods guard too.

Images: Google images

MY PROJECT 2 (RAIL TROLLEY)

Indian Railways contains a major network of railway tracks scattered all around the country. The entire length of tracks was found to be almost 67,368 kms. These railway tracks require regular maintenance and periodic overhauling for smooth and efficient transportation of freight and people all over the India.

The Gang Man also referred as ‘back bone of Indian Railways’ serves its duty for maintenance of these railway tracks. Inspite of any weather condition or prevailing circumstances, they undergo regular maintenance and inspection of these railway tracks. You must have seen them working beside the railway tracks in orange uniform with long hammer, chisel etc. on their arm and hand. On an average, a gang man inspects or walks around 30 kms of railway tracks during it duty shift. One can easily determine the efforts put by gang man during its daily shift. They face a major difficulty of walking on ballast stones of the tracks along with heavy instruments on their arms.

gang man working in railway tracks

To provide the solution and ease the working of these railway employees, a concept of rail bicycle was introduced. One can see the figure of rail bicycle below:

The invention was just a simple ‘jugaad’ where the iron frames were welded on the normal bicycle in order to maintain balance and direct the cycle on a particular direction. The side frames attached to the bicycle simply provides balance and support to the cycle and the front frames attached near front handle of tyre directs the cycle on the rails of tracks. One can easily remove the cycle on arrival of train on the same tracks. Iron wheels in profile of curvature of tracks were attached at the end of frames for the easy movement of cycle.

This simple invention provides a great relief to our gang man as they can easily inspect the tracks on the cycle with less effort and more safety. However, there are some defaults and mistakes arriving in this invention.

1. The bicycle is not completely in balanced position as there were no support on the other side of the cycle. As a result, the person has to inclined in a particular direction to keep its center of mass on the balanced position.

2. There was no arrangement for the instruments of the gang man. The person has to hang the instrument on its back during the movement of cycle.

3. The person has to keep an initial balance during the start of riding of bicycle or during standing and sitting on cycle.

4. It requires more force than riding the bicycle on the road.

In order to solve the above problems, the concept of rail trolley can be used in replacement of rail bicycle. The concept is very much simple as the rear two tyres of the trolley can be made 1676 mm apart to fit on the two parallel rails of track. The front part of the trolley or the handle part can be modified as follows:

for the back part of rail trolley

for the front part of rail trolley

A small trolley can also be attached in the arrangement so that the gang man can put its essential equipment over the trolley. The front handle can be fixed by the help of two guide wheels shown in the above figure so that the handle does not move during the movement of trolley to prevent the derailment of the trolley. As the handle remains in the middle of the tracks, a front headlight can also be used operated by battery to make inspection easier during the night duty.

The following arrangement has the major advantages as:

1. The trolley will always be remained in the equilibrium position as the centre of mass gets shifted on the middle part of the tracks.

2. The arrangement has back trolley to keep the essential equipment over the trolley.

3. The person can be remained sitting on the trolley even though the trolley not remain in moving situation.

4.  Easier movements of the trolley by less effort on the pedal.

A piece of metal can be attached to the rear wheel of trolley which can be used as a hinge for the movement of trolley out of the tracks when the train is coming on same tracks.

Thus, being the above-mentioned advantages, a cycle trolley can be used by the gang man for the inspection of tracks. The product is little more costly but more effective than the rail bicycle.

sources

images: google images

MY PROJECT 1 (AIR-CONDITIONED WAGONS)

Indian Railways being one of the biggest transporters of freight and people all over the India. With significant development in technologies of Indian Railways, it has advanced coaches as LHB rakes, advanced locomotives along with HOG technologies, better tracks, safer systems etc. Inspite of all these developments, Indian Railways is still lagging behind on its freight wagons. The old, outdated wagons are still used by Indian Railways in these modern worlds causing a major loss in energy and money. These post aims in development of special type of wagons for Indian Railways which becomes very useful in transportation of different more goods.

Many different wagons as BTPN, BOXNHL, BCNA, BCCN etc. are being used by Indian Railways transporting the raw materials, petroleum, cements, grains etc. Still it becomes difficult to transport packed foods, vegetables or such items which requires cooling as there were no air-conditioned wagons present in Indian Railways. Some materials are required to be transported from North to South which usually takes 2 to 3 days and if we transport such materials, it becomes mandatory to use refrigerated wagons.

Working of refrigeration unit:

The cooling and refrigeration take place by RAC cycle. The compressor compresses the vapor from low pressure to high pressure supersaturated steam. This steam is condensed in condenser to liquid state which is throttled to low pressure by capillary tube. This low-pressure liquid is passes through evaporator causing the required cooling action. Thus, the RAC system consists of four devices- compressor, condenser, throttling device, evaporator following the reversed heat engine cycle.

Construction and working of Refrigerated wagons

The refrigeration system consists of set of 4 wagons in which the various components will be distributed as shown in the figure below:

A: compressor

B: condenser

C: throttling device

D: evaporator

The wagon 2 of the set consists of hanging compressor below it where the low-pressure steam will be converted to high pressure supersaturated steam. This steam is made to passed through the hanging condenser at wagon 3 where the steam will be converted to high pressure liquid. The condenser contains the set of cooling fans and blowers where the flowing air cools the steam to liquid. This high-pressure liquid is made to passed through the distributer where the pump distributes the coolant liquid to all four wagons equally. This coolant liquid will be received in four throttling devices attached to each wagon. The device contains the capillary tubes wounded in form of spring where the pressure of the liquid is reduced without causing any change on its enthalpy. Finally, the low-pressure liquid reaches to the evaporator containing set of zig-zag tubes all around the wagon which extracts heat from the materials kept inside the wagons and thus makes the refrigeration effect. Finally, the high temperature, low pressure liquid gets collected in collector which is then sent to the compressor and the process repeats.

A fan attached at the top of wagon makes the forced circulation inside the wagons by which the heat is extracted uniformly from the materials and cold air will be distributed uniformly.

 
Advantages of such systems

    1. Due to distributed refrigeration system, it decreases the load or weight of each wagon thus decreasing the axle load over the rails.

    2. As more of the components are attached below the wagons, it increases the carrying capacity of the wagons.

    3. As for the four wagons, only one compressor and condenser are used, this decreases the power consumptions of the wagons.

    4. The bottom portion of wagon 1 and wagon 4 are empty. This can be utilized in instalment of brake systems for the four wagons.

Power supply to the wagons

As we can see that the wagons require electricity for its working. This electricity can be supplied either by batteries or any self-generating unit attached to the wagons. But batteries cannot work for so long and charging is required at either interval. Also, the self-generation unit attached will increases the friction and more tractive effort will be required.

This problem can be solved if we also apply the technique of HOG generation in freight locomotives. As we know the HOG generation used in passengers’ locomotives to power the coaches directly by using the 25KV electric supply by the pantograph. The extra installation of HOG generation unit is to be done in the freight locomotives similar to passenger’s locomotive.

As we know that most of the freight trains will be shifted to Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) once the project will be completed which are completely electrified routes. Thus the HOG generation locomotives can be used for such freight wagons which will boost the economy of the Indian Railways and increases the probability of freight transportation by rails.

TEXTS: MYSELF

IMAGES: GOOGLE IMAGES

EVOLUTION OF FREIGHT TRAINS IN INDIA

As one can see that the transportation of goods from rails is much more convenient that roads or airways because large amount of goods can be transported at a time with much cheaper rate and low fuel consumption making it affordable and environment friendly (less pollution). But, due to its late and slow service, no one risk to prefer it. The goods which should be delivered within 3 days takes more than 10 days to get delivered increasing both the percentage cost of transportation and loss of the owner. Also, the Railways doesn’t deliver proper goods to owner; there are some problems related to quantity and quality of good always. Taking these circumstances, one always thinks what are major developments happening in Indian Railways related to these freight trains?? The post will cover the latest technical developments of Indian Railways which include the strategies for improving the condition of freight trains!!

Before start, why these goods train are so slow? One never thinks on it because even our passenger’s train gets delayed. The biggest reason becomes the overcrowded rail routes in which preference are more to passenger’s train than freight train which operates in large quantities; making hardly any route free to move. The second reason becomes the large loads of these goods trains and the old outdated tracks which doesn’t permit to go beyond 50km/hr. The final reasons are the locomotives having very less tractive effort and low hauling capacity to pull the fully loaded fifty wagons (bogies) train.

To compensate this, the first major and mega development are the DEDICATED FREIGHT CORRIDORS (DFC) covering the four quadrilaterals and major cities of India. These will become the core of goods train allowing the trains to run with almost 110 wagons at a speed of 100km/hr max. Important part being that only freight trains are allowed to move on these routes preventing the delay and delivering the proper goods on time. The system is equipped with high tech machines increasing the speed and accuracy of the work with much better materials. To ensure more safety and quality of goods, various storage units and packing machines are installed to these routes. For more info, visit to my post: DEDICATED FREIGHT CORRIDOR (THE RAILWAYS GAME-CHANGER).

The one incidence that should be discussed before continuing that one goods train of Indian Railway is 1354 days late (almost 4 years). The incident is bit shocking; taking place when one owner ordered the transportation of 21 fertilizers wagons from Visakhapatnam to Basti on 14 November, 2014. He got only 20 wagons of fertilizers and one wagon was missing. When he complained, Railways said that the wagon was bit heavy to transported and will be transported later. But then the last wagon was delivered after 1354 days. When owner asked for compensation, railways said that it was his fault that he had not correctly matched its products. Thus, the big evolution is necessary to remove such big mistakes in Railways.

 Now, the biggest development that should be undertaken are the better hauling locomotives that are enough pull the high weight wagons. We observe that old ALCO locomotives are still used for hauling the heavy wagons like WDM3A, WDG3A etc. These locomotives still have low hauling capacity and high fuel consumption with major pollutions. But still these locomotives are most successful locomotives for Indian Railways.

Taking in account the current operational locomotive, we have the latest EMD locomotives with high traction power like WDG4, WDG5 and WDG4D. The high-powered diesel operated engines can easily move the trains with decent speed. Besides, the diesel locomotives give more traction power as compared to electric locomotives, thus are necessary.

WDG 4

WDG 4D

Next, in electric variations we have WAG5 basically used in twin coupled and WAG7 locomotive. These two locomotives are highly used in rail tracks. But when it comes to monster, we have WAG9. This locomotive is the most powerful locomotive of Indian Railways having 6350HP. This locomotive can easily haul the 60-70 good wagons with great speed. This green coloured locomotive is most commonly used in Freight tracks and on busiest routes.

WAG 5

WAG 7

WAG 9

These are some current operational locomotives being used for long time. But what about the ultra-power locomotives or these are only number?!

The first major positioner is WDG4G, a locomotive imported from general electric, Germany. This diesel variant locomotive becomes the most efficient and powerful diesel locomotives for goods trains having decent hauling capacity and fuel efficient. The locomotive would be manufactured in the factory of MARHOWRAH, BIHAR.

WDG 4G

Next to talk about the biggest accomplishment of ‘MAKE IN INDIA’ or Indian Railways project; a new conversion locomotive named WAGC3. This locomotive was manufactured with use of two locomotives, WDM3A and WAM4. The world’s first diesel to electric conversion locomotive would again be used in hauling freight trains in Dedicated Freight Corridor. For more info visit to post: WDG-4G.


Finally, the BEAST of Indian Railways; the mega hauler locomotive, WAG12. This locomotive is most powerful locomotive of India, having 12000HP. This locomotive was imported from ALSTOM, FRANCE which remarks a big history in Indian Railways. This locomotive can easily haul 100-120 wagons at a top speed of 110km/hr. The locomotive is also equipped with high modern equipment’s and used in twin sectioned for extra power. This locomotive would be proved to be a big gamechanger in Railways. For more info visit to my post: WAG12.

WAG 12

Lastly, the new conversion locomotive; again, a mega conversion
after WAGC3 named WAG11 locomotive. This locomotive would be fusion of WDG4 and WAP7 locomotive. This locomotive was also counted among powerful locomotives for freight trains.

Thus, these developments in goods train will surely bring a mega change of transportation where more preference becomes the rail transport and decreasing the transportation rate to great extent making it cheaper than others. Soon, the country will be counted among the powerful nation in rail transport and services and people can see the better conditions for the rail transport.

HOPE, YOU WOULD LIKE THE INFORMATIONS AND CONTENT.  

REFERENCES:

CONTENT: MY IDEAS AND THOUGHTS

IMAGES: GOOGLE IMAGES